The D&M Don't Come Here No More

The Detroit & Mackinaw Railroad never went to either Detroit or Mackinaw City.  It was a short run, from Bay City to Cheboygan, and one of the last family owned railroads in the country.  There was another line that came through Cheboygan, the New York Central, which was bought out by the Penn Central, and ceased operations around 1980.  The D&M bought the old Penn Central trackage between here and Mackinaw City, but they never did much with it, mostly used it to store empty boxcars for Proctor & Gamble, their last freight customer in Cheboygan, passenger service having been discontinued in the 1960s.  After the paper mill closed in 1990 there was no reason for the D&M to come here, and they tore out the track shortly afterwards.  I think they still came as far as Onaway for a few years, but then they shut down entirely, probably because the current generation of owners was ready to retire and their kids didn't want to bother with it anymore.  Some of the trackage around Boyne City was bought by somebody who, last I heard, was running excursion trips on summer weekends.  The rest of it went into the Rails to Trails program, snowmobiles use it in the winter and bicycles in the summer.

There was a train ferry, the Chief Wawatom, one of the last coal fired steam ships on the Great Lakes, which carried railcars across the straits between Mackinaw City and St. Ignace.  It was built like an icebreaker and could cross the straits under almost any conditions.  It had trouble meeting environmental standards for awhile, there was some talk about improving it, but they scrapped it out about the time the Penn Central ceased operations.  There is still one coal fired ferry, the Badger, that runs between Ludington, Michigan and Manitowoc, Wisconsin, but it only carries automobiles.  There was some talk about shutting it down for pollution a few years ago, but they fixed it up and, last I heard, it was about to start another season.

The more I think about it, one other thing that Rand and Trump have in common is that they are both reactionaries.  I use to consider myself a reactionary, but I'm not so sure anymore.  Maybe I'm getting soft in my old age.